European Union proposes a new POP to Stockholm Convention
Chlorpyrifos is a broad-spectrum organochlorine pesticide (OCP), currently mainly used in agricultural settings, such as insecticide. In June 2021, European Union proposed to list chlorpyrifos to Stockholm Convention. In October 2023, the POPs Review Committee 19th meeting, they adopted the risk profile for chlorpyrifos and decided that chlorpyrifos is likely to cause significant adverse human health and environmental effects due to its long-range environmental transport. Therefore, the committee established a working group to prepare a risk management evaluation for chlorpyrifos, and this chemical was recommended to be listed under the Stockholm Convention in Annex A or Annex B. The consultation for this evaluation is from March 13, 2024 to May 8, 2024.
ECHA is Preparing the Guidelines for Formaldehyde Restriction
To help companies comply with the REACH Annex XVII restriction that sets emission limits for formaldehyde and its releasers, the European commission requested ECHA to prepare guidelines and publish the document by the end of the first quarter in 2025. The guidelines would provide information on how to measure formaldehyde releases from articles and concentrations of the substance in vehicle interiors. Specifically, as a minimum, the guidelines should include:
- a description of appropriate test methods with examples of data obtained using these methods;
- clarification of the reference conditions listed in Appendix 14 and additional factors that may affect the test results;
- correlation of results obtained by testing under reference conditions and non-reference conditions.
EU proposes legislation to limit PFAS in food packaging materials
On March 4, 2024, the President of the Council and the representatives of the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on a proposal for a regulation on packaging and packaging waste, which adds new requirements for the restriction of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food-contact packaging to ensure that the content of hazardous substances is minimized.
On November 30, 2022, the European Commission formally published a proposal for a Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) to amend the existing Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC (PPWD).
The agreement refers to the limit values in Appendix XVII of the EU REACH regulation regarding the PFAS proposal:
- The individual PFAS that can be targeted ≤25 ppb.
- The sum of all PFAS that can be targeted ≤ 250 ppb.
- Total fluorine ≤ 50 ppm.
SVHC proposed list for H1 Y2024
On March 1, ECHA proposed the 31st batch of the following 2 SVHC consultation lists: the public consultation period lasts until April 15, 2024.
| Name |
Bis (α, α-dimethylbenzyl) peroxide |
Triphenyl phosphate |
| EC No. |
201-279-3 |
204-112-2 |
| CAS No. |
80-43-3 |
115-86-6 |
| Reason for proposing |
Toxic for reproduction (Article 57c) |
Endocrine disrupting properties (Article 57(f) – environment) |
| Common Uses |
It can be used as initiator for monomer polymerization, vulcanizing agent, cross-linking agent, curing agent and flame retardant additive for polymer materials. |
Used as flame retardants and plasticizers, mainly for resins, engineering plastics and rubber, etc.
|